As announced in a bizarre news release on its website, Target announced that select stores have painted the design of Poke Balls onto the bollards out front. Target's bollards are giant red balls, as opposed to the usual vertical posts you see elsewhere, which makes them ideal for Poke Ballification. The news release bolds the term bollards for reasons that are unclear to me. It is fun to say, though. Go ahead. I'll wait.

There's little else to the initiative beyond that--Target's apparently hoping this will lure in fans who want a picture and then decide they need some socks or Season 8 or Everybody Loves Raymond on DVD. The store will also push its Pokemon merchandise with a "special display" that's located "front-and-center," but it doesn't sound as if there will be any new items offered as part of this. You'll still have to go to ThinkGeek if you want to lay on top of Snorlax.

These Poke Ballards weigh more than 1,200 pounds each and can be found at more than 400 stores in the United States. That potentially leaves almost 1,400 more US stores with Poke Ball envy.